Something to talk about

This article about Lour Gehrig really hit home with me:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38739308/ns/health-mens_health/

It was in the men's health area but it applies to women also.  The article really resonated with me.  I felt sad, disturbed...I don't know...scared.  If Gehrig did not have ALS but was actually killed slowly and painfully by his brain and nervous system degenerating from injury, was it a blessing that he never knew?  Gehrig was a Columbia man and quite smart as well as a gifted athlete.  How would you react knowing that your resilience was in fact your undoing?

SB and I have had a few conversations about his own noggin.  It began when his mother visited us in 2008.  She was concerned that he was playing rugby again and made a comment about his concussions.  He became annoyed and changed the subject but I cornered him later that week and asked what the exchange was all about.  According to SB his mother mistakenly believed that every knock he had suffered as a child playing ice hockey was a concussion.  He was irritated because he thought himself to be a responsible guy and would not still be playing contact sports if he had suffered serious multiple concussions.

But as I came to find out, we all have differing views on not only what constitutes a concussion but how many are acceptable risk.  I accept a couple big concussions or maybe three smaller ones as acceptable risk but this may be because I have had two small concussions so I want to put myself in the safe category.

SB has had more than two. He admits to having had at least one significant concussion.  He thinks that he may have had a couple as a child when his mother observed him playing ice hockey.  Then there was one that he suffered two years ago playing rugby.  And that is all he talked about.  That leaves a gap from the age of 14 when he left his mother for boarding school to 34 when I met him that he has not accounted for any concussions.  During this time he continued to play contact ice hockey for five more years, played varsity lacrosse for his university, and began rugby in his early twenties.  I imagine there may have been at least one more concussion that we are not counting.

Thinking back to my own concussions I remember being concerned at my blurred vision and inability to process my thoughts.  I am even more concerned that this would have had any lasting effect especially since I am so conceited about being a smarty pants.

I have noticed quirks with SB that have befuddled me more than they have concerned me.  I won't get too much into them because they are personal but they are not related to his ability to rationalize and theorize.  I had discussed his quirks with his sister long before any concussion talk ever existed and it seems that he has always had these quirks but a small part of me wonders if he had them before his big concussion as a child.  A part of me fears what is going on inside my nervous system and I hope that it looks normal in there because I am never going to be as stoic or humble or compassionate as Lou Gehrig was when he became unlucky.

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